Handling dry pulverulent materials



. 1,616,547 9 c. PONTOPPIDAN HANDLING DRY PULV ERULENT MATERIALS Filed April 5, 1926 2 'Shets-Sheet 1 L J I L C V VXtXg E d $5 F 1 1,616,547 eb c. PONTOPPIDAN v I HANDLING DRY PULVBRULENT MATERIALS Filed April 5, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR Patented Feb. 8 1 927.

" UNITED STATES I 1,616,547 PATENT OFFICE.

CARL PONTOPPIDAN, OE COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, ASSIGNOR TO F. I. SIIDTH a CO.,

\ OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION 01' NEW JERSEY.

HANDLING DRY PULVERULENT MATERIALS.

Application and April a, 1926. Serial-No. 99,677.

. The object of this invention is to facilitate the handling of dry, pulverulent materials, such as dry Portland cementand coal dust, for example, for various purposes such a for example, as the bagging or barreling oi cement or the delivery of coal dustas fuel to a furnace or kiln. The particular purpose 4 has been to make it possible to deliver such material at a uniform rate and thereby to m facilitate themeasuring or the packaging of the material or the maintenance of predetermined conditions of combustion. In accordance with the invention, the material to be handled or treated or dealt with is maintained in-mass in a fluent condition by the admixture therewith of air, with or without mechanical agitation, and at a constant head and is then discharged into the measuring devices or the packaging machine or the furnace or kiln or elsewhere as the case may be. By thus maintaining the material in mass in a fluent condition and at a constant level or under a constant head and permitting it to flow under such conditions, the material is discharged at a uniform rate and, if in the form of powdered fuel, can be admixed with air and delivered into the furnace or kiln under such conditions as to insure practically perfect control of combustion, and, if dry cement or other merchantable commodity, can be measured, either by timing devices or weighing devices or otherwise, or delivered into barrels or bags or other packages, with great facility and with as certainty in delivery. The method in which the invention finds its best expression, obviously can be practiced in various forms of apparatus, suited to the character of the material and the ultimate purposes inview and it will be understood that so far as the invention finds expression in apparatus, such apparatus embodies certain essential features which take form and character according to the conditions under which the method is practiced.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1 and 2 are respectively views in outline, representing somewhat conventionally different forms of apparatus in which the method may be practiced.

c In both forms of apparatus'represented, .there is indicated a container a, such as a bin or tank, which stands as the source of supply of the material to be handled or treated. 'From the container or source of supply the material is delivered by any suitable means, represented generally by a screw conveyor 6, into a vessel 0 in which the material is to he maintained in a fluent condition and under a constant head and from which such -fluent material is to be permitted to flow at a uniform rate under the influence of such constant head. In .both forms of apparatus represented, the vessel -'0 is provided with means, represented as air nozzlesd, through which air or any other suitable or desired aeriform fluid, is admitted and admixed'with the pulverulent material in the vessel. The term-air is employed onlyfor convenience and brevity and it will be'understood that any other aeriform fluid, either of a neutral character or of a character calculated to have some influence or eflect on the material may be employed. The air is supplied under such pressure differential and in such volume as to be thoroughl admixed with the pulverulentmaterial an thereby to maintain the mass of such material in a fluent or mobile cndition in which it will be ca- -which the movement of the material to the desired point may be continued, 'but it will be understood that a. conduit of any sort is not essential in all cases, it being ssible that the material might flow direct y from the discharge opening 7 into a measuring device or a suitable receptacle.

In order that a uniform rate of flow 'of the fluent or mobile material from the vessel 6' may be attained, it is necessary that the material in the vessel 0 be maintained at a constant level or under a constant head. In 100 the form of apparatus indicated in Figure 1, the vessel 0 is provided at some suitable point inits upper portion with an overflow outlet it, through which the excess of material delivered to the vessel 0 by the feeding device 1 5 d may be returned to the container or source of supply a. In the form of apparatus shown in Figure 2, however, the vessel 0 is shown as provided with a float z, of any suitable material, which rests on the surface of 10 $0 the material a fluent condition by i the column of fluent material in the vessel 0 and is operatively connected with a rheostat k for the control, through suitable circuit connections, of a variable s (1 motor I by which the feeding device is driven. By either of such means or by other means which will suggest themselves, the fluent or mobile material in the vessel 0 is maintained at a constant level or under a constant head so that it flows from such vessel at a uniform rate.

It will be understood that the term handling is used herein in a broad sense and without any intention of limiting the invention by thelit'eral and restricted meaning of the term.

I claim as my invention 1. The method of handling dry pulverulent material which consists in imparttling to a material in said vessel under mixture of air, maintaining the mass of material admixed with air under a constant head, and discharging from the mass at a uniform rate under the influence of such constanthead the material so admixed with air.

2. An apparatus for handling dry pulverulent material which comprises a source of supply for the material, a vessel, means to de iver the material from the source of supply to said vessel, means to impart to the material in said vessel a fluent condition by the admixture of air, means to maintain the a constant head, and means whereby the material is disghaaged from the vessel under such constant ea a This specification signed this 19th day of March A. D. 1926. 4

- CARL PONTOPPIDAN. 

